Celebrating Mabogunje

This October must have been a special one for Akin Mabogunje, the Professor of Geography who celebrated the ripe age of eighty-six in the month and also became a recipient of one of the most prestigious prizes in his field of endeavour. He became the Laureate of the Vautrin-Lud Prize of 2017. It is the highest honour in the field of geography and is highly coveted and probably that is why it is referred to as The Nobel Prize of Geography. Since the prize was instituted in 1991, Professor Mabogunje is the first African to be named a winner. 

The news about the celebrations and the award was communicated to me by his son Seun whom I had known during my civil service years in the State House Abuja. I have been acquainted with the Professor long before I knew Seun whom I met as a resident IT Guru when I was posted to head the department supervising his project in the State House Abuja. Seun and I share common literary interests and one thing that stood out in my relationship with him was that he primed my interest in Wole Soyinka. I once alluded to my possession of You Must Set Forth at Dawn, an autobiographical tome of a book by our only Literature Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, but had not mustered the courage to read it.

 Despite his fame as a Nobel Prize winner, Soyinka was not well-read by Nigerians of my generation. When we were in the university in the early 1970s, Soyinka though well known as a playwright, had not yet made an inroad into ABU Zaria, where Shakespearean plays still ruled the class rooms. Seun encouraged me to read the book and was glad that I did. I found it of such profound interest that I retraced my steps to go back to read more of Soyinka’s prose work.

Anybody that has been acquainted with the field of geography and where it is applied, particularly in areas of regional and town planning, must have come across Mabogunje. He has been the dominated national figure in the field. He is reputed to be the first black African to earn a PhD in the subject and also the first to become a Professor of Geography, thus earning the sobriquet, the Father of African Geography. I did not know the extent of his international renown till when I went to Swansea University in the United Kingdom in 1979 for a post graduate course in Regional Development Planning and found that Mabogunje’s works were part of the recommended readings. When I came to know more about him later in life I found out that even as early as 1971 or thereabout Mabogunje had been a visiting Professor in many Universities across the United Kingdom as well as some Swedish Universities. 

What I have always found unique about Mabogunje and probably why he is so admired could be the abundant energy he carries his massive knowledge of geography into the realms of general human concerns. Let me just dwell on two examples. The first could be his very intimate involvement with the realization of Abuja as a Federal Capital City. When the Military Government led by General Murtala decided in 1975 to shift the Nigeria’s capital from Lagos to a more central location in the country it realized that it knew very little about the virgin land that constituted most of the area.

 Professor Mabogunje was tasked with leading the team of scientists mostly from the universities that scoured the area to provide the vital information on ecological condition of the new territory. This information included flora and fauna, land use, census of human population, people to be displaced, range of their assets and compensation to be paid etc. It was a back-breaking two-year assignment that would take him to the wilderness that was then the FCT, on a regular weekly basis from his base in Ibadan. Interestingly he had hands of assistance from Commander Murtala Nyako, then Military Governor of a freshly created Niger State who gave him a base in Minna and attached a Protocol Officer, Awwwal Ibrahim to guide him. Awwal Ibrahim also became a civilian Governor of Niger State and is today Emir of Suleija. Obviously it is the success of this intense preparatory work that is clearly evident in what is Abuja today.

The other example was his involvement in the spread and popularization of the concept of community banking in Nigeria. The story of how he came to be associated with community banking is a long one but suffice it to say that it all emanates from his vision of using his knowledge of geography in the service of rural communities and the nation in general. It all started as a concept paper in the Unity Party of Nigeria’s overall strategyin the late 1970s which Mabogunje with his colleague Professor Ojetunji Aboyade were part of and who later decided to experiment it in a small community, Awe, to see if it would upgrade the material wellbeing of the people. The Awe Opticom Plan was a good example of how classroom theories could successfully align with community aspirations. Funds were raised within the community which was saved to give members of the community access to credit for their social and economic development. The beauty of the plan was that selected leaders of the community run the credit scheme and because everyone knew each other there was hardly need for collateral. It was a resounding success. The Awe experiment metamorphosed into the Opticom Strategy for Development which later got a place in General Ibrahim Babangida’s Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI) where Mabogunje was a key player. The Board of Community Banks was one of the structures pulled out DFRRI in 1990, which was later handed over to Mabogunje to chair.

I came to see him at close range there because my two close friends and campus mates, Zakari Chawai and Abubakar Bukari were working directly with him. Professor Mabogunje was a tireless promoter of community banking touring all nooks of the country. The idea caught on like bush fire, and by time he resigned from the Board in 1994 over 1300 community banks have been established all over the country. Thereafter he was very much sought after to chair commissions, committees and panels which in one way or the other were always associated with urban and regional planning. The Presidential Technical Committee on Land in Nigeria which he has been chairing since 2009 is probably still an outstanding assignment.    

RE: OUR LAST MAN STANDING

My piece, our last man standing was intended to celebrate one of the pioneering sets (1972) of School of Basic Studies, ABU Zaria and their contribution to Nigeria’s public service. The massive contribution of the set and their overarching presence in the public service was also a testimony of what visionary education policy, such as Prof Ishaya Audu’s, could achieve.  Ibrahim Auta, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court was retiring in October and I used his career as a symbol of the group achievement. After the publication I had a flood of calls and texts mostly from our contemporaries in the university telling me that I did not go far enough.

 One of the first texts said, “Nice piece Gambo, on the last man standing. Since you extrapolated backwards to Basico ’72, I thought you missed mentioning ‘Escape’ (Arc Namadi Sambo). Yes he wasn’t the subject of interest but certainly he could pass for the icing on the cake.” Mohammed Suley, Basico ‘73.

Namadi Sambo who had been a Kaduna State Commissioner, Deputy Governor, Governor and Nigeria’s Vice-President would certainly be an icing on any cake. Mohammed Sulley is right. Another icing on the cake could be my boss Yayale Ahmed who was at various times Permanent Secretary, Head of Service of the Federation, Minister of Defence and Secretary to the Government of the Federation. I have also been intimated that Ibrahim Mairiga, was still presiding as Chief Judge in Kebbi State.